Do I have grounds for a case against the real estate agent/loan company that handled a real estate transaction 7 years ago?

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Do I have grounds for a case against the real estate agent/loan company that handled a real estate transaction 7 years ago?

The realtor used his wife as the loan officer. We did all the preapprovals for a fixed APR loan. This was our first purchase, so we were largely ignorant about real estate. The day of the loan our realtor called to let us know his wife was sick and couldn’t make the closing. At the closing we were informed that she did not realize we had recenlty bought a car, so we would have to take out a loan with a variable APR and prepayment penalty. Our realtor assured us this was common practie and would not be a problem. We later had to move back home and sell the house 6 years ago.

Asked on October 15, 2012 under Real Estate Law, Tennessee

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 11 years ago | Contributor

You most likely do not have a case for two reasons:

1) First, the statute of limitations, or time to bring a lawsuit, in your state for a written agreement (like a loan agreement) is only 6 years; if the loan was taken out 7 years ago, you have waited too long, since once the statute of limitations has passed, you may no longer sue.

2) Whether or not you were given good advice or the right loan for you or not, unless the loan officer and/or realtor misrepresented something material or important to you (such as the rate you'd pay; the structure of the loan (e.g. whether it was adjustable or not); the points or fees) or about you (e.g. lied about your income in helping you take out the loan), they did not do anything legally wrong: that is, if they truthfully disclosed all the critical information and you had the loan documents to review, you had the information you needed to make a decision as to whether you should take out the loan or not--having decided to take it out, you cannot now take action because, in retrospect, it was the wrong decision for you.


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